Kenneth Roth Quotes (44 Quotes)

It is absolutely essential that a two-thirds majority be required for membership on the new council. Nothing short of a two-thirds majority will provide adequate guarantees that the council will not simply replicate the devastating membership problems of the commission.

The Mexican government needs to ensure that rape victims do not have to endure dangerous back-alley abortions or imposed pregnancies. A public official who fails to inform rape victims of how they can obtain a voluntary legal abortion is contributing to a human rights violation and should be disciplined.

The proposed new council is a major improvement over the old Commission on Human Rights. It would be reckless for the United States to force a vote because that will invite amendments from spoiler states to weaken the council. The time has come to accept the overwhelming consensus behind the council and to work to make it function effectively.

As western governments improve relations with Libya, they should press the government to improve its respect for human rights. Libya's cooperation in fighting terrorism should not mean carte blanche to commit abuse.

There has been a significant backsliding on human rights and we are seeing that principally in terms of increasing restrictions on what it's possible to say in the press -- certainly what it's possible to say on the Internet.

We spoke openly with the Libyan government about our concerns. We disagree on many substantive issues, but they are willing to listen and discuss.

I think the effect of this will be to revive concern about the government's mistreatment of detainees and to get people to take another look at the legal basis. There are lots of lingering questions about how do you justify holding these people.

The new council should be a great improvement over the old Commission, but today's vote is only the beginning. Its ability to protect the weakest will now depend on the commitment of governments to curb rights violations.

Pregnant rape victims are essentially assaulted twice. First by the perpetrators who raped them, and then by officials who ignore them, insult them and deny them a legal abortion.

Moral squeamishness shouldn't stand in the way of finding solutions to this terrible crisis.

Iran will be the litmus test for whether China will become a responsible stakeholder in the world.

The people who carry out suicide bombings are not martyrs, they're war criminals, and so are the people who help plan such attacks. The scale and systematic nature of these attacks sets them apart from other abuses committed in times of conflict. They clearly fall under the category of crimes against humanity.

The prohibition against targeting civilians doesn't depend on the behavior of one's adversary. Even in the face of Israeli violations of international law, Palestinian armed groups must refrain from deliberate attacks against civilians.

He has been the bull in the china shop, ... He has simply flexed his muscle and started swinging away.

Property is an investment and it is susceptible to market forces, just like stocks

Those who incite others to commit terrorism must be prosecuted. But the resolution's sponsors have made it easy for abusive governments to invoke the resolution to target peaceful political opponents, impose censorship and close mosques, churches and schools.

The hypocrisy factor has encouraged copycat techniques around the world by people who do like the United States does and has also weakened the United States as one of the traditional important supporters of human rights.

If the U.S. accepts this consensus, the proposal is likely to be adopted. But if the U.S. insists on further amendments, we are likely to be worse off. Countries hostile to human rights protection are keen to introduce amendments that would weaken the new council.

We welcome Libya's first steps toward reform. But the government has a long road to travel before it meets the international standards of human rights.

This is an important symbolic visit. The real test is to see if the government is ready to implement the recommendations and show it's serious about eradicating torture.

The decapitation strategy was an utter failure on military grounds, since it didn't kill a single Iraqi leader in 50 attempts. But it also failed on human rights grounds. It's no good using a precise weapon if the target hasn't been located precisely.

On pain of imprisonment, Libyans are not allowed to criticize the government, its political system, or its leader.

Armed conflicts often involve discrepancies of power between adversaries. Allowing those discrepancies to justify attacking civilians would create an immense loophole in the protections of international humanitarian law.

Violating human rights doesn't help in fighting terrorism. In fact, it probably makes things worse.

If you're a thug, you want to be on the committee that tries to condemn thugs.

It's sad that the Republican Congressional leadership wants to focus not on the C. I. A.'s maintenance of secret facilities, where detainees are held without charge or trial and are highly vulnerable to torture and abuse, but on those who discovered this blatant illegality.

When Western governments try to use economic pressure to secure human rights improvements, China's no-strings rule gives dictators the means to resist.

There had been tremendous progress toward a consensus in creating a human rights council. That consensus has now been damaged because Bolton picked up the pages of the draft document and threw them into the air.

It's childish for the U.S. government not to cooperate with the new Human Rights Council when it cooperated for decades with the vastly inferior old Commission on Human Rights.

State laws on domestic and sexual violence fall significantly short of Mexico's international human rights obligations. The definition of incest as voluntary sex is an insult to the thousands of girls who suffer abuse daily. No one, and least of all girls raped and impregnated by their fathers or brothers, should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term.

There is an enormous problem that when a government as influential as the United States flouts basic human rights standards, it undermines the standards and gives green light to other governments to do the same.

The commission will continue until the creation of a council. The proposed new council is a major improvement.

There still is no appeal to an independent civilian court, ... The commissions still have Rumsfeld or his designate serving as prosecutor, judge, appellate judge and potential executioner. That has not changed one iota.

The moral authority of the United States depends on its working effectively with other countries to advance human rights protection not blocking a consensus proposal that makes so much progress for human rights. The current resolution can be made to work if the United States joins with other democracies to establish the new council and make it function effectively.

China has to decide what sort of global citizen - what sort of power - it wants to be. That will be a major factor shaping world affairs from economics to international politics.

Despite the fact that rape victims have a formal right to legal abortion, that right was blocked by a maze of administrative hurdles and negligence and obstruction by public officials.

The Bush administration must appoint a special prosecutor to examine these abuses, and Congress should set up an independent, bipartisan panel to investigate.

The EU largely ignored human rights abuses by its friends in Africa. It was very good about speaking out against the pariah Zimbabwe. But when it came to Angola, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, there was little if anything said.

Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause. But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive.

The U. S. government's use and defense of torture and inhumane treatment played the largest role in undermining Washington's ability to promote human rights.

You plunge yourself further and further into debt, rental prices drop, you can't make your mortgage payments and you're forced to sell for less than you owe.

We call on all countries to pledge not to vote for governments that systematically repress their people.

In a one-party system intolerant of dissent, petitioning is one of the only ways that ordinary Chinese have to air their grievances.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others insist that these are not prisoners of war and there, frankly, he's wrong. The Geneva Conventions require all prisoners to be treated as presumptive prisoners of war until a competent tribunal determines otherwise.